


You're Tearing Down Every Wall I've Known

by thegoodthebadandthenerdy



Category: The Bright Sessions (Podcast)
Genre: College, Gen, M/M, Prompt Fill, and the boys missing one another, basically good good hayes family content, holy healthy communication batman, it's all happy and hopeful dont worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 12:45:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13788051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegoodthebadandthenerdy/pseuds/thegoodthebadandthenerdy
Summary: Prompt Fill for "Things you said with too many miles between us"





	You're Tearing Down Every Wall I've Known

**Author's Note:**

> This prompt has sat in my inbox for months because I'm horrible gksnfkd but shoutout to Fids for prompting it because I Love This One
> 
> Title from johnnyswim's You and I

Adam tugged the last box from the trunk of his parents' little silver Subaru, shifting it into the crook of his elbow so as to be able to close it behind himself.

The books were weighty in his arms, but easily the most precious of what he'd brought with him. He'd had to seriously decide what to take and what to leave behind on his bookshelves for when he was home during break, so every book in his arms at the moment was startlingly important.

He made it back upstairs in record time, careful not to endanger his box, but wanting to get back to his dorm as soon as possible.

His mother and father sat awkwardly on the edge of his uncovered mattress, emotion crackling in their eyes but never spilling over.

"Last one," he said proudly, holding it up slightly higher before depositing it on his desk.

His roommate hadn't shown yet, so he'd taken the liberty of choosing the side of the room he'd wanted. Right, so as not to be right in front of the door.

"And you're sure you don't need anything else?" his mother asked, lips drawing outward as they were pressed together in an attempt to quell unwanted nerves.

"Everything I need's right here," he assured her.

Surprisingly, his father was the first to rise from the stunted mattress. 

"We're proud of you, Adam," he said abruptly, tears stuck in his throat, but never touching his cheeks.

"Thanks," he mumbled, unsure of what to do. It wasn't that his parents weren't loving it caring, it was just…not their strongest suits.

"Come on," Adam finally said, extending his arms outward to his parents. The Hayeses were a trio of emotionally-precarious people who barely knew how to navigate their own feelings, much less that of others, so Adam knew it was now or ~~never~~ stand around all day in a stalemate of unsurity.

His father slung an arm around his shoulders, and his mother around his waist, and they stood there, cramped in Adam's little dorm at Yale - _Yale_ \- and gave themselves a moment of release.

"All right," Adam finally huffed, tears brimming his eyes. "You two have to get going or you're gonna miss your lecture."

"That damn _lecture_ ," his mother sputtered out in a sudden wave of annoyance.

He laughed as she and his father traded an equally unimpressed look at the thought of the hours they had ahead of them.

"Do you think that our one and only child moving into Yale would be a good enough reason-" his father began.

"I already tried," Adam's mother muttered begrudgingly. "They just tried to accommodate."

"Damn them, then," his father muttered.

"Come on," Adam smiled. "It can't be that bad."

His mother levelled him with an unwavering gaze. "I have to make pleasantries with Stacy G for two hours, Adam Whitney," she replied, making sure to inflect something extra into his middle name. "It can and _will_ be that bad."

Adam winced. Stacy G - not to be confused with Stacy B, as Stacy B was a wonderful woman who always sent him a birthday card with $10 and a literary pun inside - might actually be the spawn of some greater evil.

"Suddenly, I have so much unpacking I need to do. I might need two extra sets of hands for the foreseeable future. And emotional support - this is all a very big change."

His mother's face bloomed into an aching grin. "That's my boy," she said, hand resting on his shoulder. "That being said, I'll never hear the end of it if we blow this thing off, so we do have to get going."

Adam nodded. "We gave it our best shot," he joked, encircling his mother in one last hug. She pressed a kiss to the top of his head, always taller than him, and stepped back for his father to get at him.

They played the game of who can squeeze the tightest, one they hadn't played since Adam was six and he and his father spent the summer together while his mother was overseas for work.

"We're gonna miss you, kid," his father joked.

"I'm gonna miss you guys, too," Adam mumbled into his father's shoulder.

Finally, after it was all said and done, his parents hit the road five minutes later than they should've. Though, his mother was driving, so they should be able to make that small window up just fine.

Adam puttered around his new room, unpacking the few boxes that dotted his bed so he could find the sheets he knew he had somewhere among them.

It was nothing like home, all plain walls and plain furniture and plain air. But, he thought, he could make it work.

And that's what he did for forty-five minutes until he was finally sprawled across his bed trying to do the last thing on his mental checklist, aka get the sheets on his bed. Or rather, get the fitted sheet to stay.

Finally, with his face pressed into the one thing that still smelled like home, he broke. There weren't tears or quaking nerves or howling sadness, but there was an ache. One in his chest just inside his heart.

He shimmied around until he could retrieve his phone from the pocket of his jeans. No matter that the fact that the fitted sheet was still hooked over both his feet and held over the top corner of the bed by his left hand, middle only weighted by his body, he still flicked open his phone and flipped over to his favorited contacts.

The phone rang three times before the line clicked. "Ooo, hey Ivy League," a younger voice joked, and Adam's face unwittingly split into a grin.

"Hey, Alice," he said with a soft laugh. "Where's Caleb?"

"He's in the shower," she replied. "But he told me to, quote 'go ahead and answer it, Al, but try to pleasant for five minutes' so here we are. How was move in?"

This wasn't the familiarity he'd been seeking, but it still eased the tension in his chest. He and Alice had struck up an odd - or rather, unlikely, as Caleb saw it - friendship in the months of him dating her older brother. 

She'd taken to Adam surprisingly fast, and he to her, which Adam remembered Caleb being both in awe and horrified of. Which was probably for the best. Adam and Alice seemed to live on a wavelength unto themselves when they were around each other - meaning they killed it at all manner of board games and laughed at all the same dorky jokes, a combined force to be reckoned with.

Adam obviously didn't have any younger siblings, or any siblings for that matter, but he liked to think if he did, that relationship would be like what he had with Alice.

Actually, fuck it - Alice was practically his little sister at this point and he was going to miss her like hell.

"As to be expected. Everything got here in one piece, I had to carry all the boxes, my weak nerd arms are weeping."

She snorted. "I tried to shape you up this summer, Adam, you should've rolled with it," she said, and Adam could hear the purse of her lips through the phone, fighting back admitting laughter.

"Okay, getting me to move wheelbarrows of mulch for your neighbor isn't shaping me up, it's unfair work practices," he griped goodnaturedly.

Breezily, she zipped over it. "Have you met your roommate yet?"

"No show, so far, but there's still plenty of hours in the day."

"I've got my fingers crossed for you, man."

"Which way?" he asked, knowing she'd know what he meant.

"Eh, either, I guess. Not an ass or not showing up at all are pretty equal, I think. Which're you pulling for?"

"I'm gonna have to go not an ass, on this one. Being the one guy without a roommate immediately turns me into the weird loner or the party room."

"You wouldn't make it as the party room," she whispered as if it were life's greatest secret.

Snorting, he replied, "I definitely wouldn't." Then, "Hey, how's the last few days of break? Don't you have your end of the season show for acting camp tomorrow?"

"I absolutely do, thanks for asking because now I can slightly derail us here to tell you about the shit Cassandra pulled yesterday in rehearsal."

"Oh, please, do tell," Adam laughed.

It was one winding, probably too amusing considering it all, story later that Adam heard Caleb's muffled voice say, "You _have_ his number, you can talk to him on your _own time._ "

"Yeah, yeah," Alice griped. "All right, dude, Caleb's getting antsy, so I'm gonna roll out before that turns into pissy. Good luck with your classes and all, I'll text you and finish up that story later."

A laugh pressed out of Adam'a nostrils. "You really can't leave me hanging on something like that, so I'm looking forward to it. And if we don't talk before your show, break a leg."

"I'll make sure some prime selections from Dad's no doubt extensive video documentation is sent your way," she promised, before there was a rustling and the phone was passed from one Michaels sibling to the other.

"You're _not_ staying," Caleb said, voice still far away as he shooed his sister from his room.

Adam could hear the vague impression of kissy noises, followed by the click of a door shutting, and then…silence.

"Hey," Caleb finally said, a smile pulling at his voice.

"Hey," Adam replied - and this, this was the familiarity he was looking for.

"How was move in?" There was a tightness to Caleb's voice, but it wasn't angry just - worried? sad? Adam could never tell.

"Oh, you know," Adam joked, taking in his surroundings - bed sheet and all. "Thrilling."

"You're holding down your sheet right now aren't you?" Caleb deadpanned.

"Okay, seriously, there's no way you could've known that without some other superpower I'm not aware of."

"Yeah, it's called observation and deductive reasoning, dork."

"Walk me through this process then, detective."

"You're constantly moving when you're on the phone and it's always loud, but it's quiet right now so you must be still. You ran over your move in day to-do list like forty fuckin' times, so I'm pretty sure it's as ingrained into my mind as that Robert Frost poem from sophomore year, which means I know making your bed was one of the only remotely still activities you had. And frankly, Adam, as much as I love you, you really do suck at making beds."

"You found me wrapped up in my sheet _one_ time!" Adam protested with a squawk. "One time!"

"You looked like a resigned caterpillar."

"Yeah, you really killed my butterfly game that day, babe."

"You already _are_ a butterfly," Caleb teased, enough softness in his voice that Adam knew it wasn't a complete joke. He was probably blushing then and there-

And that made Adam's heart split. Because it would be so _long_ before he saw that blush in person again. Before he saw Caleb again.

"Can we cut the shit, Caleb?" he asked softly.

They were going to make this work. Had promised to try their damndest, no matter where it left them. But this, this wasn't trying. This was slapping a Band-Aid over the issue. He couldn't do this dance for a semester, let alone four years.

Adam didn't have a detective-like process that he could show to the world, didn't have a solid explanation that another human being would understand, but he knows Caleb. And he knows his tones of voice, knows his word choices and what they mean. He _knows_ Caleb. And this isn't what he wants them to be saying right now.

"Yes, please."

Adam slumped farther into his bed, because at least he still knew.

"What're you thinking?" Adam asked.

"How much I already miss you, and it hasn't even been two days."

"I miss you, too," Adam managed to get out without an embarrassing crackle to his voice. "So much it's dumb," he added, a small running joke they had.

"We're gonna be okay, though," Caleb finally added. 

"It'll be an adjustment, but yeah," Adam assured.

They each paused a beat before two takes on, "But that doesn't change that I really fucking miss you right now," were breathed on their respectice ends of the call, followed by bittersweet, huffing laughter.

"It's weird, because I keep thinking about dropping by your place, but then I realize you're not a quick drive away anymore," Caleb confided. "And then I wish you _were_ there, but that would mean you aren't at Yale, and then I feel shitty."

"Hey, don't," Adam began.

"No, I know. God, Adam, I know I've told you before, but I'm so proud of you, and I don't want to take away from your accomplishments just because I'm missing you."

"We can be proud of one another and miss one another and everything else without it taking away from the other, Caleb. You got a nearly full ride scholarship to the perfect school for you off an amazingly crafted essay and the fact that I haven't shouted about it from the rooftops of fuckin' _Yale_ is a miracle unto itself. But that doesn't mean that I don't wish you were here with me so much it makes my chest ache, yeah?"

"Aw, you miss me."

"Shut _up_ ," Adam said through a barking laugh. 

"But hey, I understand what you're saying. It's just…" Caleb trailed. 

"It's hard." Adam supplied.

"It is."

"But you and I, Caleb Michaels, have had plenty of experience navigating rough situations," Adam reminded him. "And I think we'll be fine."

Adam couldn't help the grin that escaped his mind and planted itself to his mouth at Caleb's determined and adoring, "Me too."

**Author's Note:**

> yall didnt realize you needed that Adam&Alice friendship did you? thats fine bc I didn't realize how much I needed it until I started writing it and now im brainstorming friendship fic ideas for them gksnfns
> 
> catch me on tumblr @desertrosetico where i absolutely am yelling about the michaels siblings at all hours of the day


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